Streacom nano Power Supplies

I bought this for my mini itx build that I am creating and while I don’t have all the parts, I plugged this into my main desktop without the gpu installed and everything powered up.

I am so glad they support the regular IEC cable because it ships with it looks like a UK plug, while I am located in the US. So I just switched them out without a problem.

My rig:

ASRock FM2A88x-ITX+

AMD A10-7800 (65W)

Thermalright AXP-200 Muscle (with Noctua NF-F12 PWM)

G.Skill Ares 2x4GB DDR3-2133 CL9

Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD 2.5"

Raidmax Atomic (mini-ITX case)

NEW: Gigabyte RX 460

Pros:

Everything works ok.

The power brick stays surprisingly cool. Initially my system drew 40W on idle, and 85W under heavy load (gaming). After purchasing a Gigabyte RX 460, it drew 160W on load. Too close for comfort, so downclocked the RX a bit, and with a ~10% performance hit, I’m now drawing 140W under load, everything is good.

Cons:

Not really an issue, but rather an inconvenience: the power brick’s green LED wouldn’t need to be so bright, or at least it could dim down when the computer is off. I think I’ll have to put a sticker on top of it, or something...

A simple solid cover for the case’s PSU opening would have been a cheap but useful addon. I used an old PCI slot ventilation bracket to screw the power connector into. Which would be another cheap addon. But considering these are tailored more towards the DIY cases (or otherwise more custom cases), this omission was understandable.

But in any case, those are minor details. No major issues so far, six months behind. (Though check the “Other notions”)

Cost:

All in all, it is indeed quite expensive. I can imagine Streacom making a nice margin on these. You could get a pretty high end regular ATX PSU for this cost. But, it’s a niche product and Streacom is focused on premium products, and unless the competing manufacturers suddenly see miniature PSUs as a more viable market, then there’s not much of a chance of Streacom lowering their prices in the future, either...

Other notions:

There was ALMOST an incompatibility issue with my motherboard. The problem was that the PSU’s wires protruded straight towards the RAM sticks. Fortunately, I had fairly low-profile RAM sticks, so it just barely clears out.

From what I’ve gathered, AsRock is the only FM2+ ITX board manufacturer that places the RAM slot and ATX 24pin header so close and parallel to each other. All the other manufacturers have either the WiFi/BT card or some capacitors next to the ATX 24pin header.

But this will probably be an even bigger issue with Intel-based ITX boards, where it’s VERY common to have the RAM slot and ATX 24pin header close and parallel to each other.

In other words, if you’re using RAM sticks with bigger heatspreaders, always check your ATX 24pin header and RAM slots